Conventionally, deployment or installation of a new device, such as a smart utility meter, within a network, such as an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) with automated meter reading, relies on pre-installation modeling (such as propagation modeling) and/or post-installation review (such as performance data review), which usually takes hours, days or even weeks after deployment or installation of the new device to complete. Although these pre-installation modeling and post-installation review processes provide valuable information to ensure successful installation of the new device, these techniques fail to provide a real time feedback or clues about any installation problems (such as network communication problems) of the new device when the installer of the new device is on-site installing the new device. Without this real time feedback, the installer may not be aware of any installation problems associated with the new device until days later. Accordingly, the installer may be forced to later return to the same site where the new device is deployed or installed in order to fix installation problems that, if known at the time of installing the new device, could have been immediately or easily addressed by the installer.